


Silence.

by TheMusicalCC



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: Gen, Gossiping stone hijinks, Guilt, It's a sad little snippet I'm a sad little girl, Post-first Forsaken Fortress incursion, but in the sad way, gets better at the end, telink if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: The Pirate's Charm remains silent.Tetra hates that silence.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Silence.

“Kid? Kid! Answer me right now or you’re swimming all the way back to Outset!” Tetra’s fingers are so tight on the stone that they ache. The Pirate's Charm responds, glowing dimly, but no reply comes “Come on-! Kid!?”

“Miss, I think-” Gonzo starts.

“Shut it, I can’t hear-”

“Is the swabbie OK-?” 

“Quiet, Niko-!”

“Miss, the’re regrouping!” Senza points at the searchlights, that are slowly but surely getting back to working order and Tetra grits her teeth. Whoever’s in charge of the fortress now isn’t messing around.

That’s what worries her.

“Kid.” she says, throat tightening so much that she has to swallow to say the next words “Kid, come on, say something. Did they throw you into a cell again or something? Mice got your tongue?” Again, the rock glows for a couple of moments before going back to normal.

( _She’d briefly considered the possibility that the other rock being damaged was the origin of the silence, but no, it_ _is_ _responding. Which means-_ )

( _No. She can’t accept that._ )

...but, the last she heard of him was a scream that made her skin crawl. And she thought she saw the bird- that damned bird throw something to the sea, far, far away.

That couldn't have been him. Well, logically, it makes all the sense in the world that it was but, _it can't be_.

“Look if you can’t talk at least- give me a sign that you’re there. Something. Anything.”

No response comes. Tetra’s stomach sinks. She can feel the crew staring at her, waiting for her next instructions- so she purses her lips and pockets the charm, breathing out as evenly as she can and then puts her hands in her pockets too for good measure. They’re shaking.

“To the rows, let’s move away before spreading the sails.”

“Aye, aye, Miss!” comes a chorus of voices and steps scatter across the deck, She goes to take one step before realizing Niko is still in front of her, worrying his hands and making a sad puppy face that makes her want to punch him.”Are you deaf? I gave you an order.”

“Is the Swabbie…?” he all but whimpers, lower lip trembling.

( _Tetra is immediately irritated by this. She isn't nearly as naive to claim something idiotic like 'Pirates don't cry' or 'Men don't cry.'... she's seen Gonzo cry over a romance novel more than once and he's as manly and pirate-ey as they come._ )

( _But._ )

"Get to work, Niko." she says. He hesitates another moment, but his eyes show he knows what this means, what the answer to his question is.

( _Perhaps she resents the fact that he gets to believe against all sense that the kid could survive that. She can't._ )

“A-aye, aye, Miss.”

“Were to, Miss Tetra?” Gonzo asks, already at the rudder. He's trying to act normal and while she appreciates it, she's too tired to do the same.

“I don’t care, let the wind lead.” she dismisses him. “I’m beat, wake me if anything happens.”

“Aye, aye, Miss!”

Even the comfort of her bed is somewhat accusing when she lies down face-first on it, trying to turn off her mind and just- sleep, like she said she was going to.

( _Maybe it’s that stupid picture of the Hero of Time she has over her bed- that kid_ _was_ _playing dressup as him, after all._ )

She turns her head vaguely towards the sofa and the portrait over it. Her mother had talked about islands where it was custom to garb boys as the Hero when they came of age. No way in hell was that kid of age! He didn’t look older than Tetra herself- and alright, _fine_ she was a Captain at her age so it wasn’t her place to talk, but- he should have been… doing whatever it was kids his age usually did instead of playing hero with some toy sword and rickety old shield. He shouldn’t have ever thought of rescuing his sister on his own.

...and she shouldn’t have let him ride along.

She sinks her face on the mattress again. Oh, geez. That’s it, right? She should have put her foot down and refused to take him.

( _She should have just left while he was looking for the shield. She's a pirate! Lying and cheating should come naturally! She shouldn’t have allowed the damn mailman guilt her into even considering it in the first place. She shouldn't have FELT guilty at all._ )

More importantly, if she was going to let him ride along and help him into the fortress and even guide him through the Pirate's Charm, she should have made _damn_ sure it wouldn’t be a suicide mission. She should have gone with him, or at least sent someone.

( _She should have done more._ )

Before she realizes it, the Pirate's Charm is already between her fingers again, accusing. She raises it to her face. One more try can’t hurt, can it? Maybe he'd just been knocked out but he was awake now. There's still a chance she was mistaken and it wasn't him that the bird tossed out.

“Kid.” she mutters “Please, answer. You’re still there, right? ...Link.” he should know she’s dead serious now, because she’s calling him by his name. She's giving him, or the gods or the universe or whatever, one last chance “Talk to me.”

There is a flutter and the stone glows, but no answer comes. Her hands are trembling again.

“You’re not...” Tetra continues, swallowing "You couldn't be...”

The following silence makes her want to throw the stone against something- she only stops because it is, after all, another one of the things her mother left behind for her.

( _Her mother never actually called it 'Pirate's Charm', that's just what Tetra always called it because the name her mom used seemed unfitting. Gossipy Rock or something like that. She was MOST CERTAINLY not using it to gossip!_ )

( _But thinking about her mother makes her think of that sad old lady on Outset, waiting by the sea for her grandchildren to come back. Of all the islanders waving goodbye with the waves licking their toes. Of the girl taken right in front of her to replace the loss of Tetra herself._ )

( _It makes her want to scream herself hoarse._ )

Her fingers close around it, _hard_ , as if she could squeeze a reply out of it if she tried hard enough.

In the end, she puts it in one of her drawers and tries to forget about it, curled over her bed with the sea rocking her to sleep. She doesn’t take it out the next day, or the day after that. She’s a pirate, for cripe’s sakes, she shouldn’t have even been helping some stupid kid with delusions of grandeur in the first place. The less she thinks about it,t he better. The crew doesn't mention it, even Niko seems to know better than it.

( _She thinks she can hear him sniffling sometimes, though. Honestly, what WAS Niko doing in a pirate ship with such a soft heart? Crying for a kid he knew less than a day, honestly..._ )

...but later on, she takes the charm out of the drawer in the dead of night and holds it between her hands. She thinks of filling the silence coming from it with her own words, even if she'll be the only ones hearing them- she never does. She realizes one night, that she feels like she's waiting for something, and it's a silly enough thought that she wants to throw it into the drawer again, almost aggravated. She has better things to think about, either way. Places to go, things to steal.

( _Like bombs, for instance. They ran out during... well... the thing with the bird in Outset._ )

( _...Why the hell do her thoughts keep spiraling to that damn island and the stupid kid?._ )

The feeling persists, though, so she ends up putting it in her pocket instead. A good compromise with... whatever it is that's nagging her. Her conscience perhaps, if it's no disrespect to venture that pirates have one.

( _Pirates aren't strangers to hunches. More than once, hunches have saved her hide and her crew's, but Tetra isn't sure she believes in them._ )

( _Until now._ )

That night, for the first time in weeks, when Tetra holds the Pirate's Charm between her hands in the lonely corner of the bar her crew is rampaging through, there isn't bitterness and anger behind her teeth. She thinks of asking how the hell he survived. She thinks of asking what he's been up to. She thinks of asking why he didn't reply, why he didn't try talking to her on his own accord. Has he any idea of how worried she was?

That sounds almost needy, though. It's unlike her.

So instead she takes a deep breath, tempers her voice and speaks casually.

"That's mighty courageous of you..." she says, and hears a startled noise on the other end. Jackpot. She smiles. "Trying to steal treasure from pirates."

And this time, there is a reply.

**Author's Note:**

> Do you ever think about how Tetra most likely spent weeks thinking she'd delivered Link to his death after his first incursion into the Forsaken Fortress went south? Because I do. Ouch.


End file.
